Chapter 10 · The Single-Practice Samādhi — the Gate of Contemplation

Part Three · The Path

Emptiness and non-attainment now make sense—but when you sit down, what do you actually do?

Doctrine needs a gate through which it becomes contemplative practice. The Prajñā canon gives this gate a name: the single-practice samādhi, taught in the Mañjuśrī Prajñāpāramitā. This chapter first establishes the governing principle of contemplation and then looks at the definition and method of the single-practice samādhi. The sūtra's instructions are concrete enough to follow.

1 · The Governing Principle of Contemplation — Practicing Deeply and Clearly Seeing

The opening sentence of the Heart Sūtra is the governing principle of contemplation:

「When the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara practiced deeply in prajñā-pāramitā, he clearly saw that the five aggregates were all empty.」 〔玄奘譯《般若波羅蜜多心經》·T08n0251 0848c06–c07〕

Two verbs carry the sentence. 「Practiced deeply」—prajñā is enacted, not merely thought through. 「Clearly saw」—this is direct seeing when practice has become deep, not a conclusion reached by inference. The one who practices deeply is the one who clearly sees. Up to this point, doctrine has been a map. Contemplation is where one sets out.

2 · The Single Mark of the Dharma-Realm — Naming the Single-Practice Samādhi

What, then, does one practice? In the Mañjuśrī Prajñāpāramitā, Mañjuśrī himself asks and the Buddha himself answers:

Mañjuśrī said, 「World-Honored One! What is called the single-practice samādhi?」 The Buddha said, 「The dharma-realm has a single mark; bind the attention to the dharma-realm. This is called the single-practice samādhi.」 〔曼陀羅仙譯《文殊師利所說摩訶般若波羅蜜經》·T08n0232 0731a 段〕

「The dharma-realm has a single mark」—all dharmas share one true reality, the empty mark established in the preceding chapters. 「Bind the attention to the dharma-realm」—the mind is bound to this one mark and does not chase the ten thousand distinctions. After giving the definition, the Buddha establishes a prerequisite:

「If a good man or good woman wishes to enter the single-practice samādhi, that person should first hear prajñā-pāramitā and cultivate in accordance with what has been taught. Only then can that person enter the single-practice samādhi.」 〔同段〕

「They should first hear prajñā」—this gate of contemplation is not an isolated technique. If one has not first heard prajñā and rightly understood emptiness, there is nothing to which “binding the attention to the dharma-realm” can be bound. Part Two precedes Part Three; the sūtra itself gives this order.

3 · Five Instructions for Entry — a Gate One Can Practice

How does one enter in concrete terms? The sūtra gives a complete method of entry:

「If a good man or good woman wishes to enter the single-practice samādhi, that person should dwell in a secluded place, relinquish every distracted thought, and grasp no physical mark. Bind the mind to one Buddha and exclusively invoke that Buddha's name. Facing squarely the direction in which that Buddha dwells, keep the recollection of that one Buddha continuous from thought to thought. Within this very recollection, one can see the buddhas of the past, future, and present.」 〔同經·T08 0731b 段〕

Five instructions: dwell in a secluded place—choose somewhere quiet; relinquish every distracted thought—lay down scattered thinking; grasp no physical mark—do not visualize the Buddha's form; bind the mind to one Buddha and exclusively invoke that Buddha's name—the mind rests with one Buddha while the mouth calls the name. Then recollection continues 「from thought to thought」, and within that recollection one sees the buddhas of the three times. Of these five, the four words 「grasp no physical mark」 most clearly reveal the practice's Prajñā character. The mind is bound to one Buddha without grasping the Buddha's mark—recollecting the Buddha without clinging to form, the gate of contemplation never departs from signlessness. This is precisely why it is called 「single-practice」: the practice is one, and what runs through it is the single mark of the dharma-realm.

The sūtra itself gives two similes for this gate's merit. It is like a maṇi jewel worked by a jewel craftsman: 「as the jewel is polished, its color and light shine through both surface and interior」; and it is like the disk of the sun, whose light pervades everywhere without any mark of decrease〔同經 0731b–c 段〕. The more the practice is polished, the brighter it becomes—bright without increase or decrease.

4 · Where This Gate Went Thereafter

This gate later traveled beyond the Prajñā canon. Daoxin, the Fourth Patriarch of Chan, expressly said that his Dharma-gate relied on the single-practice samādhi of the Mañjuśrī Prajñāpāramitā; Zhiyi of Tiantai established from it the constant-sitting samādhi. Chapter four has already recorded the documentary course of this history. Here one need remember only this: among the thousand ridges and valleys of later contemplative practice, one living headwater flows from this place.

The gate of contemplation now stands. But the path cannot consist only of the time spent sitting. How does prajñā guide giving, ethical discipline, and all the practices of daily life? The six perfections with prajñā as their guide: chapter eleven.

Author · Shi Huijing CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · 二〇二六 · 夏